Pageant News Bureau -Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2008

Watching a new pageant take shape is like watching a new volcano become a mighty mountain, only not quite as hot. And that's good.

We've had our eye on the Miss America's Outstanding Teen Pageant since we saw the first sparks. It's a very new contest, born in this young millennium, representing the best of old and new. We'll tell you how young it is: The legendary photographer Joe Whiteko has been at every one of its national events.

Whiteko was there again in 2007, representing PNB, of course, and once again he raved about the hospitality in Orlando. Nothing pleases a media veteran like a polite pageant. Let others learn that lesson.

Appropriately, the winner of MAOT in the historic year of 2007 was the delegate from Virginia, a place that got the whole American ball rolling back in 1607. Four hundred years of Virginia plus three years of the pageant gives us Caitlin Brunell, the new winner. (That's MAOT math, a truly elegant equation.)

Age 15 at crowning, Ms. Brunell is from the town of Great Falls. She danced en pointe for her talent. Her career goal is to become a "triple threat" professional actress, winning a Tony for her work on Broadway and then cross over into television and films. (Is that all she wants?)

Her father is quarterback Mark Brunell of the Washington Redskins. Fame seems to run in the family, or at least he has to run. That's a football pun.

Lauren Nelson (Miss America) with Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2007 Marie DeSantis

Marie DeSantis during one of the production numbers

And speaking of puns, did you notice the one buried in the first paragraph of this story? You didn't? Think back. "Watching a new pageant is like watching a mountain" -- like watching a MAO Teen.

Good math, good puns and Caitlin Brunell. And Joe Whiteko working the camera. Who could ask for anything more?